bj27

Hi all,

Given Delta (and peers) eliminated change and cancelation fees, I'm wondering how many of you can relate to my experience so far.

I tend to speculatively book flights (typically award flights) for dates I may travel, frequently making multiple reservations - never for the same flight, but across different days for flexibility in plans, in case of IRROPs (which have happened), and for best pricing. After booking, I typically go back on a weekly basis and cancel and rebook if prices drop. I may attract the disapproval from the community on this... I also know many others employ the same strategy in the new post-COVID era in which we live, and I have faith that management knew full well that flyer habits would change after announcing the end of change / cancelation fees. Plus, isn't FlyerTalk all about maximizing the value we're able to get from our credit card / airline loyalty programs?

Back in November 2022, my account was blocked from redeeming for award flights (though I could cancel). Long story short, my account was under "audit" from the "Skymiles department" for "potential unauthorized access." Took ~3 months to clear (involved a lot of texts, calls to escalate, but ultimately my account was cleared). Seemed all good and I even asked agents about my strategy and was told (in more ways than one): "well we don't have cancellation fees so you should feel free to book and rebook as your plans change." Seemed all good.

Today, I went to cancel a booking given some plans had firmed up and was met with a page: "We're sorry, we were temporarily unable to process your request." I've employed the same strategy with AS, AA, and UA with no hurdles (EDIT: was able to cancel later in the day, so likely just a system issue) ... have people had the same experience as me? Is it time to chill out on the frequent rebooking (at least maybe with Delta)?

ATOBTTR

What you're doing is explicitly in violation of Delta's Contract of Carriage:
Fraudulent/Fictitious Bookings
Additionally, creating such PNRs to hold or block reservations due to expected demand, customer indecision, or for any reason including, without limitation, to circumvent any of Delta Air Line's fare rules or policies is not permitted.
https://www.delta.com/us/en/legal/bo...cy-definitions

E) Duplicate, Fictitious and Impossible/Illogical BookingsDelta prohibits duplicate, impossible, or fictitious bookings, including but not limited to multiple conflicting itineraries for the same passenger on the same day or bookings with connections that depart before the arrival of the inbound flight. Delta reserves the right to cancel any such booking which has not been ticketed, and to cancel and refund any such booking which is ticketed at a refundable fare.
https://www.delta.com/us/en/legal/co...f-carriage-igr

There's a difference between continuously changing the single booking you have (which is what the agent was referring to) versus changing a series of bookings most of which you have not intention of taking.

You're lucky your account wasn't shut down the first time during an audit. My advice would be to not push your luck any further but if you want to take that risk, I guess no one can stop you. But you're effectively preventing others from taking and using that inventory while you hold it for yourself to decide what you want.

cre95

I would hope Delta does track this behavior and instill selective measures to those that abuse it. It�s definitely doing activities that are detrimental to others. Even if seats are available for booking by others, the price for these could be higher due to lower fare buckets being already �sold� by the OP�s behavior.

Mr. Tickets

Agreed, plus if Delta feels that the system is too easy to abuse, they will bring back fees. I think that is only inevitable anyway, but why rush it? One thing is for sure and that is change!

bj27

All good points. This is helpful to know it's explicitly written in the contract of carriage (which I hadn't reviewed prior). Thank you for providing this!

Yellowjj

How many other bookings were you holding for the same time period?

"with no hurdles"....yet. What you are doing is prohibited on practically all airlines; your accounts simply hasn't been flagged yet at those other airlines. Keep it up and it most definitely will be and they may not be as generous as Delta, with giving you a second chance.

bj27

I don't hold bookings for the same days. I typically make one booking for the day I think I'll most likely fly, and then one for either the day before or day after until plans firm up (or in case I feel like there's a high chance of IRROPs, like a poor weather forecast). But based on responses above, it sounds like it's better to firm up plans rather than make multiple bookings, which is reasonable.

DLASflyer

I have had multiple similar but not overlapping reservations with Delta at times and never had an issue. In my experience United is much more strict.

Cory6188

I'd imagine that for anyone who's a reasonably frequent flyer (on DL or otherwise), there has to be a pretty typical level of "churn" in terms of reservations that get booked, canceled, etc. I certainly book my fair share of mileage (and revenue, but less often) tickets which I end up changing/canceling, but it's usually relatively far in advance of the flight when my plans are eventually finalized. For example, I'm trying to coordinate a trip to Hawaii in August for a wedding in conjunction with a group of friends, and my speculative flights/dates have already changed 3 times as we've tried to hammer out a plan for which islands on what schedule, etc., but it's all only on one PNR, and I doubt DL cares too much 4 months in advance.

I'd assume that to catch DL's notice, you have to be a few standard deviations above the norm in terms of the frequency of cancellations/multiple bookings to catch their attention, with a lot of close-in changes right prior to departure time. What that level is, only DL knows, but if you've already been flagged once for unauthorized activity, then you're probably on thin ice - and chances are that the average FTer is going to be way below that level and therefore wouldn't have any real educated guess as to what that threshold is.

Beckles

Unless there is more evidence than this it seems much more likely to me that the system just choked on your request for some reason than something that has been flagged with your account.

NYC Flyer

Not condoning the fictitious/speculative/dupe booking approach, but are you certain this isn�t just a tech issue? Have you tried calling to cancel?

There is no charity in the current policies�we are paying for the flexibility in ticket prices. Also, carriers, especially DL, can just keep raising Main Cabin fares while enhancing options/flexibility within BE fare category without the PR fallout of reversing course.

Mr. Tickets

We can agree to disagree. The airlines are losing millions and millions of dollars by not assessing change fees across the board. With some of the airlines now starting to charge for little things like seat assignments in business class (which will be considerably less revenue overall than change fees), you can bet change fees will be back. It just takes someone to start the ball rolling. The original intent of doing away with fees during Covid was to get people to make more bookings in a slow time for the airlines and make clients comfortable doing that without worrying about more fees.

bj27

Good points. In the past I've booked flights that will most likely fit my schedule and the proposed plans, plus one other flight, either a day before or a day after.

There have been times where entire sets of plans have fallen through (which necessitate the canceling of everything associated with that set). Either way, I typically cancel everything at least 4 weeks in advance. I've only held reservations until the day of on two separate occasions, when weather was forecasted to be poor, to have a backup option in case my original flight was delayed.

You're both correct - edited the original post to reflect as such, as later today I went back to see if the cancellation could process and it worked (for multiple reservations).

I will note - and many others are likely to concur - that airfare prices do seem noticeably higher than in years past.

indufan

I do have what I think is a legitimate question here. Where is the line? I didn't do it this year but I considered going to DCA for the Cherry Blossoms this year. Those dates are variable. I considered booking three trips for three weeks in a row.

findark

The intended line is that if you book one or more trips that you are definitely not going to fly (such as three trips and you know you will only take one), it's violating the CoC.

Practical enforcement is obviously a lot more lenient than that.